Fleetwood Mac’s “Gold Dust Woman” and the Many Things Stevie Nicks Has Said It’s About

Despite sounding like it came straight from a mythological fantasy story, Fleetwood Mac’s “Gold Dust Woman” has some heavy real-life inspiration behind it. Talk of ancient queens and pale shadows of a dragon blur the song’s true meaning, but songwriter and frontwoman Stevie Nicks has since clarified what the track actually meant.

Was it about drugs? The music industry? Nicks herself? Her relationship with Lindsey Buckingham? If you were to ask the “Rhiannon” singer herself, she might reply with a simple “yes.”

The Most Obvious Lyrical Reference, Explained

It’s hard to describe the meteoric rise of Fleetwood Mac without mentioning illicit drugs and complicated relationships, and Stevie Nicks’ “Gold Dust Woman” seems to combine elements of both. Although some reports claim that the song’s title came from a street in Arizona, close to where Nicks used to live called Gold Dust Avenue, the singer hasn’t shied away from its connection to cocaine.

In a 1997 interview with SPIN, Nicks said, “Well, the gold dust refers to cocaine. But it’s not completely about that because there wasn’t that much cocaine around then. Everybody was doing a little bit. We never bought it or anything; it was just around. I think I had a real serious flash of what this stuff could be, of what it could do to you.”

“The whole thing about how we love the ritual of it, the little bottle, the diamond-studded spoons, the fabulous velvet bags,” she continued. “For me, it fit right into the candles and incense and all that stuff. And I really imagined that it could overtake everything, never thinking in a million years, it would overtake me. I must have met a few people who I thought did too much coke, and I must have been impressed by that because I made it into a whole story” (via InHerOwnWords.com).

The Real-Life Inspiration Behind The Gold Dust Woman

Fleetwood Mac’s “Gold Dust Woman” was, of course, about more than just cocaine. In a sense, the gold dust woman in question was Stevie Nicks herself. Per OnStage Magazine, Nicks once said her signature song was about a “woman who is dealing with the pressures of the music business and who is trying to keep up her strength and not let herself get beaten down by it.” Considering her position in the music industry at the time, it’s not a stretch to assume she meant herself.

“Being in Fleetwood Mac was like being in the army,” Nicks said during the VH1 special The Making of Rumours. “You have to be there, and you have to be there as on time as you can be there. Even if there’s nothing you have to do, you have to be there. So, “Gold Dust Woman” was really my kind of symbolic look at somebody going through a bad relationship, doing a lot of drugs, and trying to just make it. Trying to live, you know? Trying to get through it to the next thing” (via InHerOwnWords.com).

Interestingly, Nicks had a different story in the 2012 book Making Rumours. In this instance, Nicks said she wrote the song “about groupie-type women who would stand around and give Christine and me dirty looks. But as soon as one of the guys came in the room, they were overcome with smiles.”

Of course, the song’s opacity contributes to its mystical, sinister allure. (Even Lindsey Buckingham once called the track “evil,” per Far Out Magazine). But whatever the official inspiration, perhaps the likeliest story is that Fleetwood Mac’s “Gold Dust Woman” was a sparkling, lace-covered amalgamation of several things that shapeshifted and transformed alongside Nicks herself.

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